William didn't raise the levels of any of the newly earned Talents just yet. He wanted to keep some backup Potential Points in case something happened, or if he needed to perform an emergency upgrade.
His upgrades took up most of William's day so he got some rest after a quick meal at Wild Clover.
Awakened by the "Fire Alarm" as William called it literally, he went to the Alchemy Hall for the day's assignment.
Even though he was admitted into the Alchemy Competition, William was still required to spend the day providing materials to today's Inner Core Disciples. The Alchemy Hall planned to have Yuming cover William's position the next day, so there was no problem.
Yuming wasn't waiting for William this time, but he didn't need any more supervision and quickly got to work. The Elders asked William for two batches of Fire Palm Seeds and twenty Reed Mantis Claws to start the first phase.
When William went to deliver the materials to the Elders, he noticed a familiar face on the stage. It was Yuming! He was currently focused on brewing a Tier 2 Pill for the first phase of the competition, so he had room to pay attention to other things. He saw William looking at him and gave a quick wave.
So he's competing today, huh? No wonder he wasn't waiting for me.
The development wasn't a concern for William. In fact, he had gotten somewhat close with Yuming over the last few days, so Will wanted to see how he would perform in the final phase.
William increased the speed at which he brought materials to the stage, garnering some confused looks from a judge and some spectators as William's figure flashed around the stage.
"That guy is quite fast, isn't he? And look at that reaction time, he's practically dancing around the Alchemists." Elder Tianshen commented.
"It's very...elegant, don't you think?" Elder Arthur agreed.
Elder Fuxi was somewhat frustrated since William had offended him earlier, but he couldn't refute the other judges' words. William seemed to have quite a few interesting abilities, but it was just that.
William finished his work just in time for the third phase to start. He watched as Yuming surprised the crowd by refining a peak Tier 3 pill for a score of 96 points, beating Lu Bingying by a small margin.
William wasn't aware of this, but many of the comments William made during the previous two days of the competition had actually improved Yuming's Alchemy skills quite a bit. If it was three days ago, Yuming might have only scored 90 points on the same pill.
With that in mind, Yuming went over to William in a good mood after being awarded his Silver-Ranked Fire Root.
"Hey William, what do you think of my method? Better than Lu Bingying's right?" he bragged.
William scratched his head, "Better than the others for sure, but you shouldn't have put so much Wind Wyrm Scale in the cauldron. You only needed about three quarters of the scale to refine a peak Tier 3 Heaven Resisting Pill. You used too much, and the other ingredients weren't enough to raise the Pill to Tier 4."
"..." Yuming was expecting some praise from William since he scored even higher than Lu Bingying, but the reality was quite harsh. Google seaʀᴄh ɴovelfire.net
Elder Arthur looked at William with shock. How did he know a secret that took this old man a hundred years to discover? To understand raising a pill's rank past the hypothetical limits...that was a skill only renowned Alchemy Masters like himself knew!
He became somewhat suspicious...Who was this Outer Core Disciple?
William didn't notice Elder Arthur's expression. He looked at Yuming's prize with greed. "Do you want to sell that Fire Root?"
"Just kidding. Haha."
He and Yuming spoke for a while longer until it was time to leave the Alchemy Hall. William didn't have much to do, so he spent the remainder of his day at the training area developing new spells for the Fire and Water Elements, earning an additional 18 Potential Points.
The following day, William woke up bright and early. He made omelettes for himself and Atticus, then followed his routine path to the Alchemy Hall where Yuming was waiting.
"Good luck William. Don't disappoint me after you criticized my Alchemy yesterday." Yuming's words were mean, but his tone suggested he was mostly joking.
William nodded. He wasn't worried about a Quest with Medium difficulty, especially after upgrading his Alchemy Talent. He walked up to the stage and took a random seat while waiting for others to arrive.
Some Inner Core Disciples already present noticed William as he sat down. One disciple pointed at William, "What's an Outer Core Disciple doing here?"
"Oh you don't know? That's William, who Elder Arthur invited personally to participate in this year's competition. I heard he just joined the Sect too."
"Really? That's him? I heard he corrected Lu Bingying's Alchemy the other day, is that true?"
"I'm not sure, sounds like a rumor to me."
Elder Arthur rose from his seat and quieted the room. "Good morning, Alchemists! Today marks the fourth day of the 450th Annual Alchemy Competition. Like the previous three days, we only require you to refine a Tier 2 pill with a score of 80 within an hour. If you can achieve this, you will automatically move on to the second phase. Are there any questions?"
No one raised their hand to which Elder Arthur nodded. "In that case, you may begin. Disciple Yuming, be ready to accept any ingredients lists that we approve."
The Inner Core Disciples pulled cauldrons out of their Space Ring and placed them in the ground in front of them, then started writing their list of required ingredients and quantity on a nearby sheet of paper.
William looked at this and realized he hadn't brought a cauldron. He looked at Yuming, who noticed his stare.
Elder Arthur also noticed William's peculiar behavior. He approached William's seat and leaned down to quietly ask, "Is something the matter, Disciple William?"
William was embarrassed to tell the truth, but he couldn't think of anything better to say. "It seems I do not have a cauldron with me, Elder."
Elder Arthur's face twitched. How can you come to a competition for Alchemy and not bring the one thing required to conduct Alchemy?
He maintained his calm composure, "I see...would Disciple Yuming be willing to share his cauldron with you?" he stole a glance at Yuming, who already knew where the conversation was going.
"You owe me for this." Yuming brought out one of his spare cauldrons for William to borrow during the competition.
"Thank you, thank you Senior Yuming. Your foresight is unmatched, and your talent surpasses the heavens." William showered Yuming with praises.
"What are you even saying, you idiot. I'm leaving." Yuming stormed off with a huff. William's compliments were quite effective though as a smile creeped up on Yuming's lips.
Elder Arthur smiled, "It seems your predicament has been solved. I will be off now, good luck young man."
William nodded. He scanned the knowledge that the System had provided during the Alchemy Talent upgrade, searching for the perfect Tier 2 pill recipe.
His eyes gleamed as he found something interesting.
This will be perfect!